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Nature Medicine 8, 1359 - 1360 (2002)
doi:10.1038/nm1202-1359
Skin antibiotics get in the loop
Elizabeth Kopp1 & Ruslan Medzhitov2
- Section of Immunobiology, Yale University New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute New Haven, Connecticut, USA e-mail: ruslan@biomed.med.yale.edu
Abstract
Epithelial peptides called defensins can kill microbes directly. New data reveal another function for some of these host antibiotics—enhancement of the innate immune response.
The immune response to infection is initiated through recognition of microbial products by receptors of the innate immune system. These receptors, known as Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognize conserved molecular patterns produced by bacterial, fungal, viral and protozoan pathogens—but not by their multicellular hosts.
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